Media Askew

"MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties."

"Most" lean left? Excluding the two who gave to both (we don't know if they gave equal or very unequal amounts), we have 144 Democrat/liberal contributors and 17 GOP contributors. That's 89+% Democrat/liberal.

With this kind of wild disproportion, media bias is inescapable and simply a given. The entire culture of newsrooms and editorial staffs leans heavily in the liberal direction, and that is constantly reflected in how news is covered, and in what stories are covered in the first place. In extreme cases, like that of the woeful New York Times, the result is a kind of journalistic jihad in which even the pretense of objectivity is discarded.

We are saddled with a mainstream media that is institutionally incapable of providing the public with unbiased information, and which cannot be trusted. Fortunately, that media is becoming less relevant and important with every passing day, and this is part of the reason.

Notice that even this story itself gets biased coverage by MSNBC, who would like us to believe that "most" is an appropriate adjective to describe a near-90% tilt. A very odd use of language. Rather than trying to minimize the disproportion, a straight news report would have said, accurately, that "Almost all of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left," or words to that effect. As usual, however, we are not given a straight news report; instead we get yet another biased product of MSNBC's ideological digestive system.

Byron